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Libya rebels flee oil port under regime barrage

RAS LANOUF, Libya (AP) - With fierce barrages of tank and
artillery fire, Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists threw rebels into a
frantic retreat from a strategic oil port Thursday, using
overwhelming force in a counteroffensive that reversed the
opposition's advance toward the capital Tripoli and now threatens
its positions in the east.

Hundreds of rebels in cars and trucks mounted with machine guns
sped eastward on the Mediterranean coastal road in a seemingly
disorganized flight from Ras Lanouf as rockets and shells pounded a
hospital, mosque and other buildings in the oil complex. Doctors
and staff at the hospital were hastily evacuated east along with
wounded from fighting from the past week.

In Tripoli, Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam vowed to retake the
eastern half of the country, which has been in the opposition's
hands since early on in the 3-week-old uprising.

"I have two words to our brothers and sisters in the east:
We're coming," he told a cheering crowd of young supporters,
depicting Libyans in the east as being held "hostage" by
terrorists.

The rout was a heavy blow for the ragtag rebel forces of armed
civilians and mutinous army units that only days before had been
confidently charging west, boasting they would march the hundreds
of miles (kilometers) to "liberate" Tripoli.

It came even as the opposition was making gains on the
diplomatic front. France became the first country to recognize the
rebels' eastern-based governing council, and an ally of President
Nicolas Sarkozy said his government was planning "targeted
operations" to defend civilians if the international community
approves. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she
would meet with opposition leaders in the U.S., Egypt and Tunisia.

But the West showed no concrete sign of moving toward military
assistance that the opposition has been pleading for. A rebel
spokesman went beyond repeated calls for a no-fly zone to prevent
Gadhafi's air force from harrying opposition fighters and said the
West should carry out direct strikes against regime troops.

"We have requested for all steps to be taken to protect the
Libyan people. We believe the U.N. can do that. The bombardment of
mercenaries and Gadhafi troop camps are among our demands,"
Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, a spokesman of the governing council, told
reporters in the opposition's eastern bastion Benghazi.

The rebels' capture of Ras Lanouf a week ago had been a major
victory as they pushed along Libya's long Mediterranean coastline
toward Tripoli, in the far west of the country. A day after seizing
it, their forces charged farther ahead, reaching the outskirts of
Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and the bastion of his regime in the
center of the country.

But there they were met by a heavy counterattack that over the
past week steadily pushed them back toward Ras Lanouf, 380 miles
(615 kilometers) east of Tripoli, as rebels tried to build supply
lines from further east to keep up momentum.

The regime offensive appeared to build in force. Thursday
morning rebels were bringing in heavier weapons like
multiple-rocket launcher trucks and small tanks to front lines just
west of Ras Lanouf. But they came under a powerful barrage of
shelling that pushed them back along the flat, desert scrubland
into the tiny oil port.

A torrent of artillery and tank shells pounded around the
facilities and the adjacent residential areas - long deserted amid
the fighting.

Akram al-Zwei, an opposition leader in the nearby city of
Ajdabiya, said gunboats off shore joined the bombardment, though
that could not be independently confirmed. He said four battalions
of pro-Gadhafi troops were involved in the assault, battling the
opposition's civilian militias and an eastern-based special
commando unit, the Saiqa 36 Battalion, that had joined the
rebellion.

Rebels fought back with rocket fire and anti-aircraft guns. But
the fighters, mostly armed with assault rifles, appeared outgunned.
"We don't have any heavy weapons," shouted one fighter, named
Ali.

By the afternoon, many rebel fighters were speeding east from
Ras Lanouf in a frantic evacuation, most converging on the
opposition-held oil port of Brega and the city of Ajdabiya, 100
miles (160 kilometers) away. "Everyone just started leaving, it's
not organized," said one fleeing fighter. "The weapons we have
just don't reach them."

Ras Lanouf's main hospital was hit by artillery or an airstrike
and the rebels pulled their staff out and evacuating patients to
the towns of Brega and Ajdabiya, said Gebril Hewada, a doctor on
the opposition's health committee in the main eastern city of
Benghazi.

At least four rebel fighters were killed, 35 wounded and 65
missing in the fighting, according to doctors in Brega.

There were conflicting reports about whether government forces
completely held Ras Lanouf. Al-Zwei and Ghoga, the opposition
spokesman, claimed it remained in rebel hands.

A rebel fighter who fled the city after nightfall said it still
had not fallen to the regime.

"They are still bombing it from the air, the sea and with
rockets, but the ground forces have not come in," Mohammed
el-Gheriani said, carrying a Kalashnikov rifle.

But it appeared that Brega, 70 miles (116 kilometers) further
east, could also be under threat. During the day, a warplane struck
an empty area in Brega, which has also largely been evacuated of
residents and personnel.

"We need help from the international community, but we just
hear promises," said Mohammed Ali al-Zwei, a 48-year-old rebel
fighter. "They are doing nothing."

Taking back Ras Lanouf would be a major victory for Gadhafi,
pushing his zone of control farther along the coast. His regime has
also claimed a victory in the west, saying Wednesday it recaptured
Zawiya, the closest rebel-held city to the capital, after a six-day
siege. Western journalists based in Tripoli were taken late
Wednesday to a stadium on the outskirts of Zawiya that was filled
with Gadhafi loyalists waving green flags and launching fireworks.
But the journalists were not allowed to visit Zawiya's main square,
and the extent of government control was not known in the city,
located on Tripoli's western doorstep.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Qaid reiterated the government's
claim Thursday, reading a military statement saying that Zawiya had
been recaptured at 11 a.m. Wednesday and journalists would be taken
to visit the city on Friday.

"Now the forces are cleaning the city of the extremist armed
militants," Qaid told journalists. He said "the security forces
and civilians" had seized weapons and ammunition, including
anti-aircraft guns, mortar shells and anti-tank missiles.

Western countries appeared to be growing more open in their
embrace of the rebel movement. But they were struggling with how to
translate that into concrete support.

France said it planned to exchange ambassadors with the rebels'
Interim Governing Council after Sarkozy met with two
representatives from the group, based in Benghazi, Libya's
second-largest city.

"It breaks the ice," said Mustafa Gheriani, an opposition
spokesman. "We expect Italy to do it, and we expect England to do
it."

French activist-intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy sat in the
meeting and said France was planning "targeted operations" to
defend civilians if the interim council demands them and the
international community approves. Henri-Levy did not elaborate and
the French government declined to comment, so it was not clear if
Henri-Levy was describing a new, more aggressive plan for
intervention.

NATO has said it is drawing up plans for a no-fly zone but would
only act with the approval of the UN Security Council. Britain and
France have backed the rebels' calls for a no-fly zone.

But the U.S. showed caution, warning against a go-it-alone
approach in Libya.

"Absent international authorization, the United States acting
alone would be stepping into a situation whose consequences are
unforeseeable," Clinton said. "We're looking to see whether there
is any willingness in the international community to provide any
authorization for further steps."

Speaking at a House budget hearing, Clinton announced that the
U.S. was suspending its relationship with Libya's remaining envoys
to the country, though the move falls short of severing diplomatic
relations. She said she would meet with Libyan opposition figures
when she travels to Egypt and Tunisia next week, marking the
highest level contact between the U.S. and anti-Gadhafi elements
controlling most of the east of the country.

NATO said it had started round-the-clock surveillance of the air
space over Libya, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said
a meeting of EU foreign ministers would discuss how to isolate the
regime.

Germany said it froze billions in assets of the Libyan Central
Bank and other state-run agencies. The U.S., UK, Switzerland,
Austria and other countries have also frozen Gadhafi's assets.

"The brutal suppression of the Libyan freedom movement can now
no longer be financed from funds that are in German banks,"
Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said.

The Libyan government tried to stave off tough action, sending
envoys to Egypt, Portugal and Greece.

------

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Tripoli, Zeina Karam
in Cairo, John Heilprin in Geneva, Elaine Ganley in Paris, Don
Melvin in Brussels and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to
this report.